1. Field of Invention
This invention relates in general to a computer-based database system, and more particularly to a Human Resource Networking System and Method Thereof, which is a computer-based data integration and management processing system and method thereof for Project workforce locating, identifying, and fulfilling. In addition, occupational reports generate Conjunctive Project Sentences of Credit Construct per the System's CCIV&V Method, that allows additional reports to be generated from the Conjunctive Project Sentence of Credit Construct that inform, promote, network and market a workforce's Talents, Skills, Performances, Products, and Services per our System's Credit Link Method.
2. Description of Related Arts
In the 1980's, government reports caught the applicant's attention with the pronouncement that entertainment professionals should anticipate a life expectancy second only to those mining for coal! While actuaries cite personal life styles, this invention references professional work styles as the major cause for the professional's shortened life expectancy. “You're only as good as your last Gig,” is an industry axiom resulting from highly capricious industry Projects whose volatile work styles may last one hour, one month or one lifetime. A professional having their next performance lined up while still working is an exception rather than the rule.
No matter if one performs in front of or behind the camera, microphone, stage, screen, cage, whip or desk, the bulk of one's career is spent networking for that next gig which, in some instances, may never come. While staying employed on a regular basis can be enhanced with a good manager, developing personal networking skills is a workforce professional must. Full time employment in Project-related industries requires modes of continuous workforce readjustment, no matter the Industry, the Project, or Performance type. The challenge of being in the right place at the right time, fulfilling a present workforce commitment while not knowing when one's next job will occur, greatly contributes, I believe, to our Industry Workforce's shortened life expectancy.
This Project Workforce employment challenge is not unique to the entertainment industry, as it exists as an unsolved professional and human resource problem in all “Project-driven industries.” Interestingly, to date there is no one method or system available for identifying, locating, and fulfilling a Project's workforce requirements that uses live qualified industry Project credits. There is no one method or system that also includes keeping verified industry skills and talents, correct work contact addresses and phone numbers, as well as one's records for work availability. The various systems that exist do so at the exclusion of others. While offering reduced services and reports that are neither relational nor dynamically assembled, they also do not offer one's efforts in assurance style credit reports that more or less follow generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which include Compilation, Review and (System) Certified as does this Method of the present invention.
In reality, existing conventional entertainment workforce systems are not open systems, but are closed systems. For example, www.thelink.com is an existing closed entertainment workforce system for union members only. Furthermore, it is not relational, it does not track industry Places and Things used in developing industry Projects, and it does not report audited industry credits as does our System's CCIV&V Method. In addition, its credits are not automatically generated with additional Credit Links as are the credits generated by the Method of the present invention.
However, there are new requirements for global products whose markets are constantly changing with the advent of newer technologies. We find talent moving about, changing addresses, phone numbers, managers and agents, as they search out production companies whose workforce requirements are adjusting to these changing markets.
In addition, entertainment companies, such as Universal Studios, are re-locating to facilities once thought too remote for production. It's only a matter of time before all facilities require a knowledgeable workforce equipped with the latest networking technologies required for tomorrow's worldwide just-in-time production requirements. The use of old-fashioned methods (printed publications and one's ability to professionally network) mostly determines how this closed workforce is staffed today. However competing in tomorrow's worldwide markets may be the reason the present closed systems disappear, as world areas experiencing recession market their services, products and workforce against those world areas that are prospering. This coming world marketplace will give rise to the network that allows those possessing in-demand skills, talents, products and services to market these skills, talents, products, and services to worldwide supply-and-demand buyers. At this time, no such human resource system or workforce method exists.
Today hundreds of resumes may be submitted for any one entertainment job on a given day, but how can Project Managers take the time to independently identify, verify and validate a resume's reported credits in light of today's quick-paced production needs when they are forced to economize by cutting manpower.
Conventional systems monitoring addresses, phones numbers, and points of contact for work are orientated towards doing business the old-fashioned manual way, which is networking by personal contacts and searching existing linear and non-linear systems such as printed directories. The LA 411, published by LA 411 Publishing company, is a non-interactive system whose published data cannot be updated as changes occur, but only on its annual publication. It also performs an incomplete fractionalized job, as it does not service all industries of entertainment, does not encompass all industry Professionals and Services, nor does it serve entertainment Consumers and Students of fine art, as does this invention.
While a few entertainment industry methods utilizing new technologies are beginning to emerge, as in the case of Pro Audio (www.proaudio.com), they are available only for a particular media category, and not all media categories as is this invention. In some cases, as with Pro Audio, they list only two of our invention's Elements. These services basically specialize in one form of media and do not offer a system designed to serve all entertainment industries. A human resource service for movies, such as Castnet, services actors only. In addition, Castnet does not offer independent identification, validation and verification of industry credits, does not track Projects, is non-relational, and uses traditional styled printed formats for its resumes. Additionally, its credits are not conjunctive, they are not independently identified, verified, and validated as in the present invention's CCIV&V Method, and they do not report Credit Constructs containing additional occupational reports as either Compilation, Review or (System) Certified, as does this System's Credit Links Method. Furthermore, some systems are designed for Consumers and not industry Professionals, whereas the present invention is equally for Consumers, Professionals and Students of fine arts.
Some methods use systems designed primarily for marketing entertainment products as in the case of www.imdb.com. While www.imdb.com provides information regarding movies, the information is not reported as a Project Workforce Networking System which is relational and whose Credit Data is constantly being uplifted automatically with live industry credit bytes. Existing systems for other entertainment industries, such as www.allmusic.com, are focused with a system unlike the present invention mentioned in this specification. U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,004 is not designed to work with a Relational Database, and therefore does not have rules like the present invention. Therefore the data is not updateable, and the system lacks a CCIV&V method and the ability to learn. Additionally, data on its resumes cannot be saved to build a human resource database. The human resource system U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,694 is not applicable in that the Elements are not similar. Additionally U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,409 is not applicable for several reasons, the least of which is that the Element data is not updateable with live data.
In summary, there does not exist today an entertainment Human Resource Networking System for a workforce specializing in Project-driven development. There does not exist a method for locating, identifying, and fulfilling production Project workforce requirements that uses this System's Credit Constructs, which are Independently Identified, Verified and Validated, more or less following generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and which offers Credit Links to added occupational reports defined by the System's Method to at least include Informational (Credit) Links, Instance (Credit) Links, Transactional (Credit) Links, and Access-to-Programming (Credit) Links. Until such tools are available, time-consuming individual research and personal networking skills will prevail, as well as the opportunity to exaggerate one's UNaudited industry credits as official industry credits and reference guidelines for Project employment.
Therefore, a longstanding need still exists for such a Method, and that need now becomes more acute in this new age of worldwide economies and information. The need still exists for a talent locator that locates talent and skills via Compiled, Reviewed and Certified Credit Constructs—a Credit Construct that further networks a talent's news releases, media reels, and e-storefront, that provides a talent with the ability to research and poll viewers, that readily provides an economic and convenient location for a world-wide presence that presents specific workforce skills, talents, products and services for a human resource industry, and which allows the talent to be in the right place at the right time to do the right thing.